Last night on the ferry from Helsinki to Suomenlinna, I meet the Mexican artist Bruno Bresani, who is staying on the island for a couple of days, having finished his own residency in Finland.
Today he shows me some of his work - a work titled SANTE - a Mexican bible he has used to highlight fight against drugs. The front and back covers of this detail the numbers of people killed, and the names of the drug cartels - all beautifully embossed in gold. Inside, 16 holes have been drilled through every page to represent the 16 people shot each day in Mexico City in the war against drugs.
The photograph above is of his work titled Flowers. I tell Bruno that Davina and I researched Finnish customs, and found these, which we particularly liked: at a Finnish Wedding, the oldest man in the community, not the brides father, leads the bride down the aisle, and at the reception the groom dances with every woman, the bride with every man, returning afterwards to their new wife / husband as a sign of their commitment to each other.
He tells me another. On the day before her marriage the woman goes to a sauna with her girlfriends, and dances in a circle to erase the memory of previous boyfriends.
Bruno tells me that an uncle of his, administered a leprosy colony, and shows me a photograph of the football team from this colony. This is a strange coincidence as earlier in the week, I remembered a book that I read as a child. In it there was a section about a saint (?) who lived amongst amongst a vast colony of lepers, never catching the disease.
Tonight I go for a walk around the island. A large grey hare sits impassively on a narrow track. I move towards him. He lollups through some bushes.
This is the spot where the hare sat
The geography of the island is deceptive. You can get easily lost, despite its small size. Earlier this morning it took me two hours to find the only shop, laughable, its only about ten minutes away !
Food here is expensive - though the only shop on the island is part of a not particularly cheap supermarket chain. I notice lots of nettles around, and am resolved to make nettle soup !
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